In this issue:

UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (UNDP)

• When People Take Initiative: the President of the Kyrgyz Republic Opened a New School Built in Osh Province
• Good Will and Good Fellowship - the Biggest Richness on Earth: the First International Youth Summer Camp to Strengthen Social Harmony in Cross Border Communities
• From culture of violence to culture of peace: Seminar for UNDP Preventive Development Staff in Issykkul
• A Set of UNDP Publication: Gender in Different Aspects of the Kyrgyz Society

UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION (UNESCO)

• Workshop Training: An Application of the Software for the National and Central Asian Memory of the World Registers

UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (UNDP)

When People Take Initiative: the President of the Kyrgyz Republic Opened a New School Built in Osh Province

19 July 2004 was a holiday for the village Alim Tepe in Osh Province; they have now their own school for more than four hundred pupils.

There is a feeling of proud among the villagers, because they managed to build this school themselves. Fourteen months not only inhabitants of Alim Tepe but people from neighboring villages of the Nariman Municipality worked tirelessly in order to finish construction before the start of the new school year.

Construction budget of the project is around 73 thousand US dollars. More than half of this amount was funded by the local administration of Nariman, around twenty percent including the construction work was contributed by the inhabitants. The Ministry of Emergency of the Kyrgyz Republic, province and district state administrations, UNDP and others sponsored the project as well.

Twelve community organizations created in the village with support of UNDP Local Self-Governance programme and joint into one powerful association and participate more and more actively in improving the social and economic situation in Alim Tepe. The Association has its own funds amounting to more than six thousand US dollars.

Villagers who after support and training by UN Volunteers learnt how to work with resources and effectively cooperate with local administrations and a wide range of partners, are using their resources to improve the basic living conditions in the village.

Kyrgyz President Askar Akaev highlighted in his statement at the ceremony of a new school opening that it is hard to overestimate support provided by the United Nations Development Programme in social and economic development of rural areas in Kyrgyzstan and improving living standards of villagers.

Osh Governor Naken Kasiev, Mayor of Osh city Satyvaldy Chyrmashev, Minister of Emergency Temirbek Akmataliev, members of the Kyrgyz Parliament, UN Volunteers, heads of local state administrations, leaders of community organizations, eldest and most respected people of the area and inhabitants of the village participated in the ceremony, including those for whom this project was initiated – children.

‘This is our investment into prosperity of the young generation, - said Khairullo Atabaev, respected eldest of the village. We want our youth to be well educated and never having to confront with unemployment. This goal jointed my fellow villagers and pushed them to forget for the time being their own problems in order to solve a common one.

Since 1999 the UNDP Local Self-Governance and Decentralization Programme is being implemented in Kyrgyzstan. The impact of the programme is reflected in the development of the National Strategy on decentralization and self-government development and the Laws of the Kyrgyz Republic on Local self-Governance. But one of the most convincing proves of its impact in the field is that the concept of CBOs working proactively together with the local administration has been widely adopted far beyond the pilot villages where UNDP initiated the process. The number of Community Based Organizations (CBO) in non-pilot villages is now by far exceeding the number of CBOs founded with the support of UNDP.

Starting in 1999 in three provinces, the programme is currently working in all Kyrgyz provinces, strengthening the local self-governance system, supporting grass roots initiatives and creating a model of effective interaction between state bodies and civil society organizations in practice.

“My dream is that eighty percent of adult population in our district were members of community organizations and actively participated in the process of social mobilization,” - said Akbaraly Karabaev, the head of the Manas District state administration of Talas Province.

“This is the most successful model of cooperation with local population and an effective use of small budgets and resources, he said”.

For more information, please contact Mr. Alexander Kashkarev, UNDP Programme Officer. Tel.: 0 (996 312) 61-12-13. Fax: 0 (996 312) 61-12-17. Email: or Ms. Olga Grebennikova, UNDP Public Affairs Officer at the same phones. Email:

Good Will and Good Fellowship - the Biggest Richness on Earth: the First International Youth Summer Camp to Strengthen Social Harmony in Cross Border Communities

Sogd province, Tajikistan and Batken province, Kyrgyzstan, August 10-23, 2004 – Under the slogan “Good Will and Good Fellowship - the Biggest Richness on Earth” the first International Youth Summer Camp will be carried out within the framework of the joint Cross-Border Project between UNDP Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

The summer camp will be realized into two groups in the recreation zone “Buhta mirnaya” at the seaside of Kayrakum water reservoir in Sogd province in the Republic of Tajikistan and in the children’s convalescent home “Belek” in Leylek district, Batken province of the Kyrgyz Republic.

120 school children from cross-border communities Kulundu, Arkin, Aksay, and Aktatyr of Batken province Kyrgyzstan and Jamoats Gulhona, Kostakoz, Voruh and Chorku of Sogd province Tajikistan are participating in the camps.

As a run-up to the summer camp youth festivals under the motto “Friendship makes us stronger” were held in cross-border communities. The festivals comprised various activities –a composition and a painting contest, the competition “Come on girls!”, the sport contests “Funny starts” as well as exhibitions of young craftsmen.

During the amateur art festival among secondary schools the participants displayed their talents in dancing, reciting poems and singing. The best and most active children were selected to participate in youth summer camp.

The varied summer camp programme comprises several trainings on “Culture of Tolerance”, “Effective Communication skills”, “Leadership”, “Team-building and conflict management”, “Information material development”. Round tables focus on environment protection, as well as cultural and health improving activities such as evenings on “The lines between past and present”, “Poetry and creativity evenings”, sport contests. During the active rest time the participants will be given the opportunity to obtain skills in different fields, exchange experience with their peers, develop leadership skills and abilities to work in team which will further increase their capacities to work independently.

The main objectives of these summer camps are to broaden cross-border cooperation between cross-border communities of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, strengthen peaceful relations and mutual understanding among youth and school children, and support peaceful initiatives and social harmony in Ferghana Valley.

The international youth summer camp for Kyrgyz and Tajik peers will give an impulse to further promote cross-border interaction and strengthen the spirit of cooperation.

For more information, please contact Ms. Mia Rimby, UNDP Programme Office. Tel: 0 (996 312) 61-12-13. Fax: 0 (996 312) 61-12-17. Email: , or Mr. Abdiraim Jorokulov, Manager of the UNDP Preventive Development Programme. (3222) 55713 or 57837 or checkout our official website www.pdp.undp.kg

From Culture of a Violence to a Culture of Peace: Seminar for UNDP Preventive Development Staff in Issykkul

Issyk-Kul, August 2-6 2004 – Within the framework of Preventive Development Programme was held seminar-training focused on broad aspects of preventive development: gender mainstreaming, technologies of monitoring, mediation and negotiation.

“From a culture of violence to a culture of peace” was the slogan of the seminar to underline the importance of cultures and traditions investigation for further development of stability and partnership, core principles of UNDP Preventive Development Programme.

The film “Gender wars” from the BBC series “Man and Woman” shown in the seminar caused stormy discussions on similarities and differences of cultures and traditions and the diversity of ideas interpreting these cultures. Moreover, participants enlarged the scope of their knowledge in the sphere of sexism, gender and feminism.

Special attention was paid to the issues of gender mainstreaming in theory and practice of preventive development and conflict resolution.

Going into the core issues of social divide, polarization and gender scanning of the monitoring instruments in prevention and resolution of conflicts the participants got the opportunity to contribute their expertise in the formation of a new system aimed at reformulation of the programme components and activities.

The problem of HIV/AIDS in Kyrgyzstan was touched as well. By means of easy but intricate exercises the trainers explained the rules of HIV/AIDS prevention. “Prevention is Better Than Cure” becomes the slogan of anti HIV/AIDS activities in all the regions of Kyrgyzstan. The group work on the definition of new preventive approaches to HIV/AIDS aimed at analyzing the importance and responsibility of this work for the prevention of individual and inter-group conflicts in the communities.

The seminar resulted in a joint analysis of possibilities to incorporate innovative ideas and technologies into the activities of Preventive Development Programme.

For more information, please contact Ms. Mia Rimby, UNDP Programme Office. Tel: 0 (996 312) 61-12-13. Fax: 0 (996 312) 61-12-17. Email: , or Mr. Abdiraim Jorokulov, Manager of the UNDP Preventive Development Programme. (3222) 55713 or 57837 or checkout our official website www.pdp.undp.kg

New Series of UNDP Publications on Gender Aspects of Development in the Kyrgyz Society

A set of mini-surveys in the area of gender has resulted into publication of a four brochures entitled: Gender Aspects of Poverty in Kyrgyzstan, Gender Aspects of National Governance, Gender Aspects of Conflict Prevention, and Gender Aspects of Local Self-Governance.

Specialists of the independent Agency of Social Technologies conducted the mini-surveys in the area of Gender by request of UNDP Kyrgyzstan earlier this year.

The objective of these researches was to analyze four basic areas of development (National Governance, Local Self-Governance, Conflict Prevention and Poverty) and to give recommendations for mainstreaming a gender-oriented policy into these areas.

The mini-survey in the area of National Governance concludes, that ”without achieving equality in political decision-making [of the country], actual recognition of the interests of women in the formulation of national policies is impossible” and contains a set of recommendations, concerning the necessity of amendments into the national legislation and improvements of state procedures at national level to change the current situation in this regard.

The survey in the area of Local Self-Governance concludes that without achieving a gender balance on the level of local state governance it would be difficult to prove successful process of decentralization in Kyrgyzstan.

Surveys in the areas of Poverty and Conflict Prevention along with qualitative analyzes of specific aspects of gender imbalance in access to basically all kind of resources, including land property and potential of women in conflict prevention and resolution, also contain recommendations to equalize women’s participation in decision making process.

The well-designed brochures (volume of each is 30-40 pages) are a good source of information and ideas for decision makers, researchers, leaders of communities and civil society organizations and are to be widely distributed to National partners of UNDP, including Kyrgyz Government, non-governmental sector, local state administrations, Community Based Organizations, Kyrgyz Parliament, mass media etc. and will soon all be placed on the UNDP Website: www.undp.kg Published in Russian, Kyrgyz and English and available at the UN Library in Bishkek.

For more information, please contact Ms. Anastasia Toropova, UNDP Gender Coordinator. Tel. 0 (996 312) 66-38-85. Email:

UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION (UNESCO)

UNESCO Workshop Training: An Application of the Software for the National and Central Asian Memory of the World Registers

The Workshop Training on application of the software for the National and Central Asian Memory of the World (MOW Central Asia) registers took place in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on 12-13 August 2004.

Organizers of the workshop training were UNESCO Almaty Cluster Office, Kyrgyz MOW National Committee, and National Commission of the Kyrgyz Republic for UNESCO. Representatives of the National MOW Committees of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were invited for participation in the training workshop.

The training workshop was designed to raise capacity of the national committees’ members to work with a common working platform in the cyberspace in order to promote Central Asian documentary heritage, exchange information, knowledge and experience relating to the MOW activities within Central Asia.

The participants were trained in using the MOWCA software developed by UNESCO Almaty Cluster Office as a tool for nominating documentary heritage into the national and the sub-regional MOW Registers. New nominations are expected to be included into the registers. Besides, common issues relating to the MOW Programme will be discussed.

Note: UNESCO established the Memory of the World (MOW) Programme in 1992. Impetus came originally from a growing awareness of the parlous state of preservation of, and access to, documentary heritage, which resides in libraries, archives, museums and keeping places in various parts of the world.

War and social upheaval, as well as severe lack of resources, have worsened problems, which have existed for centuries. Significant collections worldwide have suffered a variety of fates.

Looting and dispersal, illegal trading, destruction, inadequate housing and funding have all played a part. Much has vanished forever; much is endangered. Happily, missing documentary heritage is sometimes rediscovered.

The MOW Programme recognizes documentary heritage of international, regional and national significance, maintains registers of it, and awards a logo to identify it. It facilitates preservation, and access without discrimination. It campaigns to raise awareness of the documentary heritage, to alert governments, the general public, business and commerce to preservation needs, and to raise funds.

Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan actively participate in the programme. Each of the countries established National MOW Committees. Documentary heritage of some of them has been included into the International MOW Register.

For more information, please contact: Mr. Ulan Jumaliev, Programme Specialist, Kyrgyz National Commission for UNESCO. Tel: (0 996 312) 62 46 81, 62 66 36 Email: